Friday, July 27, 2007

Thanks to everyone who showed up at the Cleveland's Screaming premier. Not too many of you did, so a lot of people are going to be spending the next 10,000 incarnations as cabbages. I will pray for you as I eat my cole slaw. The ones who did show up were pretty enthusiastic, which was very nice.

AND for those of you who didn't get enough of my lisping Living On Purpose interview it is up here. So go listen.

AND Also it will be re-broadcast on www.radioearnetwork.com next Monday (3-5pm EST in the second hour) and Friday (11am-1pm EST). That's East Coast Time, guys.

Live the lisp! Love the lisp!

I will be at the Hill Street Center tomorrow. But I am out of there like a shot the minute the Zazen ends. Was supposed to go to SD Comic Con today but my hotel reservation got royally screwed. So I booked a different (better as it turns out, people must've cancelled) hotel for tomorrow. This means I gotta whizz right out there if I expect to get anything at all done.

44 comments:

Drinking coffee will get you reincarnated as a cabbage, pretty sure. Going to Seaworld? That's a cabbagin'... Criticizing any Buddhist teachers (after all, no Buddhist teacher would ever do anything that could possibly justify criticism)... That's a cabbagin' too, at least according to some purported Buddhist I corresponded with recently.

So, Brad, enjoy your coleslaw mindfully, for someday YOU will be on the other end of the fork! MUAHAHAHAHA!!!

I take that last comment back and apologize. I am just pissed that people keep dissing other Buddhists! I mean WTF people??!! I was listening to Ajaan Brahm, here, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9R6rUeUJZ5cabout forming an interfaith Buddhist sangha in Australia to deal with that sort of abject sectarian horseshit before it got out of hand there. Know what that leads to? Beirut. Baghdad. Religious violence. In short, it leads to Hell. Capital H. Why not dialogue!!!??? Why keep dissing others and laughing with your friends?? And don't tell me that "hey dude, you're doing the same thing," blah, blah, blah, because speaking out forcefully against wrong speech is not wrong speech. So I apologize for the rant above, but I would like to think of you guys as my friends, instead of thinking that you will diss me as soon as I start to think something that you don't agree with. Fuck.

I used to be such a comic book geek that I helped two friends open stores. I wonder if running a comic book store is cabbage worthy...

I am a fan of coffee and according to Dr. Oz, if your tummy can handle 24 ounces, you should drink it everyday for the antioxidants and other good stuff. That's four cups if anyone's counting. So medically it's cool although it makes your pee smell funny.

The sign of a fanatic is that they're more upset with people they have more in common with than those that they don't. Sure, Buddhists get along with other, usually. But start a discussion on Soto versus Rinzai or Mahamudra versus Dzogchen and stand back!

@ jinzang--yes! exactly! That sort of bad-blood-brewing infighting is TOTALLY creepy, and leads, like the butt crack said, and is immediately evident, to terrible, terrible things, like a wacked-out-shit-pie of a guerilla-warfare situation.

Now, much of what comes out of the butt crack is, undoubtedly, total shit, but, while we don't have to be, erm, cheek-to-cheek all the time, driving a wedgie into the sangha (e.g. Devadatta's nonsense) is even more so.

Take it from the butt crack: It is important to remember that, when we are talking about somebody who has an established 'higher' spiritual practice, be it Hindu, Buddhist, esoteric Christianity (Say, the Trappists) or what have you, we are dealing with not the top 1%, but perhaps the top .000001% of humanity. Seriously, who does serious spiritual practice? Let's face it, people are focused on getting their needs met and fixing their boyfriends/girlfriends /mothers/fathers/ neighbors/ blah, blah, blah.

Given this, there are much, much, MUCH better targets for our ire and our silly cynical remarks. Like, say, the Mormons...i mean WTF?? ...oops...did it again...

@ mysterion...haha well maybe not that rare, but I really don't see two people on every packed subway car able to get into samadhi and see through even the most basic levels of the content of their thought. They are deeply implicated in their stories, and I just can't see that they are attending to process...even on a basic level...I don't see two out of 100 people being able to do that...or even contemplating that such a thing might be possible.

I do see people praying in the sense of wishing good will for their loved ones, but as far as hardcore chillin and living in between the sensation-points and dissolving the line between self and other...I just don't see that kind of thing happening with 2/100 people. And I think that's just the beginning of insight, a basic requirement to start really digging into the mind. Yes? Well, enough out of the butt crack.

whoops. hmmm....haha yes jinzang i must have been *talking out my ass...or speaking tongue in *cheek...either way i made an ass out of myself with that number, for sure. sorry for talking shit.

Maybe 2.5% is a reasonable number. That would mean that there are 7,500,000 serious religious/ spiritual practitioners out of the 300,000,000 in the US...could be I guess. I for sure haven't done anything more scientific than, well, pull these numbers out of my ass hahaha...

Eisai wrote Kozengokokuron (The Protection of the State by the Propagation of Zen), and exposed the ignorance of those who protested (against Zen). The Emperor Tsuchimikado (1199-1210) promoted Eisai to So Jo (purple robe) in 1206. He then went to Kamakura at the invitation of Sanetomo, the Shogun, and created Kama-kura Zen, which still prospers.

Mysterion, why are you being mysterious about your buddy, the very well known and prolific Jay Kinney? I assure you, millions of people know who he is and are familiar with at least some of his work.

When is Cleveland's Screaming coming out on DVD? I've already asked my fave punk rock record store guy to keep an eye out for it. If he can stock the Zero Boys, Live At Cosmo's Pizza, he can stock Cleveland's screaming.

Barring the DVD release, when will it be opening in Northern Cal? Ever? SF and thereabouts is a refuge for all sorts of midwest punks. Can't say I know any from Cleveland but I know plenty from Indianapolis and Detroit.

I found out about Brad's reading in Petaluma the day after it happened. Blame it on the bookstore, but blame it on someone. That makes me feel so much better.

Does anyone knows a resource that shows the actual sanskrit words for the Four Noble Truths? I am really looking for a sort of Buddhist/Hindu dictionary that includes popular terms and the original Pali/Sanskrit of the words. Any ideas? Digital is preferred, but paper is also welcome.

The book, Kozengokokuron, which 'promoted Zen Buddhism in the Kamakura period' is a forgery. None of the existing manuscripts are originals from Eisai. Although it has a number of parallel passages with Genkoshakusho, the tone of the writing lacks both dignity and elegance of Eisai. Mistaken statements are common in Kozengokokuron. The account of Eisai's journey to China does not even appear in Genkoshakusho. This is enough evidence to support that the manuscript is not a true Eisai composition, but created after Genkoshakusho in the Edo period. A passage in which Eisai refers to himself as 'Bosatsubiku' ('Bosatskaibiku' being correct) is obvious evidence against his authorship. Therefore, Kozengokokuron was written by a less able author at the beginning of the Edo period, a time when the Rinzai Zen Buddhist Sect was attempting to revitalize itself, having crumbled during the collapse of imperial support for the five Zen Buddhist temples of Nara (Gozan).

Thanks Mysterion! But I actually mean like, the sanskrit SCRIPT. The linear flowing text that is looks a lot like ancient hebrew or Tibetan. I can find the phonetic pronunciations just fine, but I can't seem to find anywhere that shows the script.

If your intention is to get a feeling for the meanings of the pali/skt terms as they are applied in religious contexts, i.e., as they apply to inner states with our eyes closed, nothing beats just going for fluency. This means enrolling in a university and taking sanskrit 1010, and pali 1010, with no doubt some very cool buddhist studies courses thrown in. However, if you are interested in those states, many buddhist teachers would no doubt tell you to sit and follow their practice instructions. If you just want a couple of books, for Pali try Warder's Introduction to Pali and Lily de Silva's Pali Primer. Don't know much about skt. Best, the butt crack.

Oh, and if your intention is to get a tattoo...While I don't particularly like them--I prefer practice over any sort of public declaration of commitment to this or that ideal...I can't think of a better one. Though, from the butt crack's perspective, I would still discourage it.

I was asking out of curiosity. I noticed, while looking for the exact definitions of some of the Pali words in the Dhammapada, that only Dukkha and Tahna have actual sanskrit writing. The others just have the phonetic spelling in roman letters.

“The Sanchi and Bharut inscriptions dated to the middle of the second century B.C.E. push the composition of the 5 Nikayas back to a earlier date by mentioning the word “pañcanekayika” (Five Nikyas), thereby placing the Nikayas as put together at a period about half way between the death of the Buddha and the accession of Asoka (before 265 B.C.), as such the 5 Nikayas, the earliest existing texts of Buddhism, must have been well known and well established far earlier than generally perceived. Finally proving the majority of the five Nikayas could not have been composed any later than the very earliest portion of the third century B.C.E., and most likely existing prior to this date as well.” -Studies in the Origins of Buddhist Scriptures